Apples

The apple has always been Greenmantle's primary fruit
focus. This obviously reflects the broad adaptation and distribution
of such a fundamental fruit, as well as its long list of distinct varieties.
It also derives from the apple's primacy and longevity in the local landscape.
More than a century ago, our region was settled by an influx of Euro-American
homesteaders who "proved" their claims in part by establishing
orchards. Many survivors of these plantings still stand and produce fruit.
And most of them are apple trees.

Old
abandoned
still extravagantly productive

A Wickson Crab in Etter Orchard, circa 1985
Here in the Mattole River watershed
we are situated on the Western frontier of the apple's manifest destiny.
The ubiquitous presence of the apple in the New World reflects the early
dominance of British colonization. The apple tree thrives in Great Britain,
and the British have long enjoyed a nearly obsessive love affair with
the genus Malus. Ironically,
most of the varieties they attemped to import into North America were
not fully hardy here. It took the planting of tens of thousands of
pips to create a new breed of American apple.

England's devotion to the apple took root and grew to huge proportions
in the American soil. Many of the world's great varieties began as seedlings
planted during the colonial period or shortly thereafter. New York and
New England became centers of apple culture. The resulting varietal legacy
includes Esopus Spitzenberg, Swaar, Northern Spy, Baldwin, Tompkins King.
Roxbury Russet. Jonathan, Rhode Island Greening, and many more.

As the frontier was pushed westward, apple trees - both grafted varieties
and unproven seedlings - moved with it. The story of John Chapman aka "Johnny
Appleseed" is a national legend based on fact. Chapman's pioneer
nurseries provided thousands of apple seedlings for settlers in the Ohio
River Valley. Some of these ended up as rootstocks grafted over to established
varieties brought from the eastern states. And many were left to produce
nondescript fruit which was blended into hard cider and apple jack; these
were the most popular beverages on the American frontier.

By the time Euro-American dominion established itself in Northern California
(circa 1850), the roster of "domestic" apple varieties had
become quite extensive. These formed the foundation for homestead orchard
plantings here. A survey of the surviving trees reveals that the Mattole
and Eel River Valleys of Humboldt County were well suited for growing
the classic varieties of NewYork State, including Tompkins King, Esopus
Spitzenberg, Jonathan, and Northern Spy. Southern apples like Arkansas
Black, King David, and Winesap also flourish here.

Despite its wizened structure, this
century old Tompkins King apple tree continues to bear dependable
crops of fine fruit.

While California is not usually regarded as "apple country",
all kinds of varieties seem well adapted to the Northwestern corner of
the state. Our own experience confirms this remarkable felicity. Notoriously
tempermental English varieties like Cox Orange Pippin and Pitmaston Pineapple
bear first-rate fruit next to long-season Japanese varieties like Fuji
and Mutsu. Apples from all over North America and the world seem at home
here in the coastal mountains of Humboldt County.

Hyde King Apple - Though
it originated in the Midwest circa 1880, this excellent winter-keeper
seemed to be extinct except in our local homestead orchards. It
deserves to be rediscovered by orchardists everywhere.

MASTER LIST OF APPLE VARIETIES

PLEASE NOTE: We are not able to maintain
an inventory of trees for sale representing
our entire apple collection (250+ varieties). Instead, we focus
our propagation on those varieties we deem most important and/or popular.
Availability varies from year to year. Quantities - and rootstock options
- are limited.

ALL our apple varieties are available each season
as dormant benchgrafts in a range
of rootstock options ( M26, MARK, MM111, domestic seedling
). Sorry - but we do NOT sell scionwood……..

CODE: EHC - Euopean Hard Cider AHC
- American Hard Cider

* indicates the variety is described in the Greenmantle Catalog

The apple portraits are reproduced from Apples of New York
- S.A. Beach (1905). All these varieties, except Roxbury Russet,
have been collected in old homestead orchards in Southern Humboldt....

"Why do we need so many kinds of apples? Because there
are so many folks. A person has a right to gratify his legitimate
tastes. If he wants twenty or forty kinds of apples for his personal
use, running from Early Harvest to Roxbury Russet, he should be accorded
the privilege. Some place should be provided where he may obtain
trees or scions. There is merit in variety itself. It provides more
points of contact with life, and leads away from unifromity and monotony."